Chương 9: Immortality

The ground shook. From the dense foliage, the Razorback emerged like a runaway truck. The creature was massive—a monstrous boar covered in plates of black stone infused with mana. Its lower tusks were as sharp as battleaxes." Selene, now! Start chanting!" Ren shouted, charging toward the beast. The mage froze for half a second, but the firmness in Ren's voice forced her to act. She planted her staff into the earth, closing her eyes as purple mana began to condense at the tip of the wood. Four seconds.

Ren ran in a straight line, drawing the monster's attention. The Razorback snorted, digging its hooves into the dirt and shifting the focus of its charge directly toward Ren's chest. The beast's speed was absurd. Three seconds. Ren calculated the distance. The heavy wind whipped up by the monster slammed into his face. He planted his feet in the grass, bracing his body for the side-step he had trained so exhaustively in the inn's backyard. Two seconds. Ren lunged to the left. He was fast.

His brilliant mind had predicted the exact trajectory. But the physics of this world were unforgiving. The Razorback wasn't just fast; the stone mana surrounding its body created an invisible, cutting force field. As the monster's tusk grazed past him, the impact of the compressed mana didn't just throw him away. There was a wet sound of tearing flesh. And a sharp snap. One second. Ren hit the ground, rolling several times through the mud. He tried to push himself up quickly, but his balance was gone.

When he looked down at his left side, shock paralyzed his senses before the pain could even register. His left arm was no longer there. It had been torn clean off from the shoulder. Blood spurted in hot geysers, staining the bright green grass a vivid crimson. The severed limb lay a few meters away, its hand still gripping the iron short sword." REEEEN!" Selene's scream echoed through the forest, laced with pure horror. The distraction, however, had worked.

The Razorback had overshot its charge, completely exposing the left side of its neck where the stone plates were thin." Shoot... dammit... SHOOT!" Ren roared from the ground, his vision beginning to blur from hemorrhagic shock. Driven by desperation and rage, Selene released the spell. The cannon of concentrated fire erupted from the tip of her staff like a spear of incandescent light. The shot was surgical. The magic pierced the Razorback's soft neck, exploding its innards from within.

The giant boar let out a high-pitched squeal and collapsed heavily onto the earth, kicking up a cloud of dust. Dead." No, no, no..." Selene dropped her staff, sprinting toward Ren. Her hands shook so violently she could barely tear her own cloak to try and stanch the bleeding.

"Hang on! I'm going to take you back to the city! A healer... a healer has to—""Selene..." Ren tried to speak, but his voice failed him. The pain that finally hit his brain was indescribable. He felt the cold grasp of death creeping in. He thought that everything he desired from this new fantasy life had ended right there, before it could even begin. That his second chance had been wasted by a miscalculation. But death never came.

A few meters away, the severed arm on the ground began to bubble grotesquely, rapidly dissolving into a handful of ash and dark powder that the wind blew away. At the same time, the torrential bleeding at Ren's shoulder stopped. Strands of muscle tissue, bone, and veins began to sprout from the exposed flesh at a terrifying speed, weaving themselves out of nothingness. Like an organic printer at work, a brand-new left arm grew back in less than ten seconds.

The skin sealed perfectly over the new muscles, leaving not a single scar. Ren blinked, slowly moving the fingers of his new left hand. No pain. No marks. Selene took two steps back, falling onto her rear in the mud. Her eyes locked onto him as if she were looking at a monster or an ancient demon. She was far too pale to form a single sentence. Ren looked down at his clean, smooth palms. Wait, Ren realized, his mind racing. Last night... my hands were full of blood blisters from the iron training.

I thought the sweat had washed them away, or that the inn's lighting was poor. But they were already gone before I even went to sleep. I am not an ordinary human in this world. I cannot die by conventional means. I am... a semi-immortal. A shiver ran down Ren's spine, but his face quickly regained its usual cold composure. He still didn't understand the reason behind this absurd regenerative ability, but he recognized that the rules of this new chessboard were playing in his favor.

He had gained immortality, but the price of discovering it had been experiencing the agonizing pain of having his own body torn apart. He stood up slowly, walked over to where the dust of his old arm had vanished, and picked up the iron short sword that had fallen there. Then, he looked at the smoking carcass of the Razorback. If my body creates new limbs out of nothing, time and physical damage don't matter, Ren thought, a dark determination settling in. I can fail. I can be mutilated. I can bleed...

But I will always return whole. This world is bloody, but now I hold the ultimate advantage. I will learn to master every single rule of this game. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.